Jacksonville child care provider sentenced to jail 2 days a year for child drowning

The criminal case of an unlicensed day-care owner who had a 2-year-old child drown under her watch has been resolved in a way the judge dubbed “unique.”

Jan Marie Buchanan, 46, pleaded guilty Wednesday to culpable negligence in the death of Steven Spurlock. Under the terms of her plea deal, Buchanan will spend the day Steven was born, Dec. 9, and the day Steven died, May 24, in jail every year for the next 10 years.

Circuit Judge Brad Stetson said it was the first time he’d ever seen a deal structured this way.

“There may have been one like this before, but I’ve never heard of it,” Stetson said. “It showed great imagination by both sides.”

Buchanan, who operated Kiddie Heaven out of her Westside home on Ireland Drive, will also be on probation for 10 years. While on probation she will be prohibited from owning or operating a day-care facility and will be required to donate $2,000 every year to Safe Kids, an organization that promotes swimming safety.

Under the agreement, prosecutors dropped the original charges against Buchanan, aggravated manslaughter of a child and operating an unlicensed day-care facility, which had a prison sentence of up to 30 years.

Assistant State Attorney Alan Mizrahi said the plea deal made sense because the child’s parents agreed to it and supported Buchanan.

“I think it’s a fair deal to end what was a very sad case,” Mizrahi said. “Hopefully something good will come out of it.”

Attorney Whitney Lonker said Buchanan didn’t want to put the family through a trial and believed the arrangement was fair.

“The wonderful thing about this tragedy is that the parents of this child fully supported my client,” Lonker said.

Steven’s death was a horrible accident, and Buchanan took the deal to bring closure to the situation and allow everyone to move on with their lives, Lonker said.

Buchanan remains friends with the mother and father and has baby-sat their other children, Lonker said.

According to her arrest report, Buchanan was the only adult at the home when it happened last summer. She told police she had taken the seven kids there, all 1 to 4 years old, out to swim for about an hour.

She came back in with the children and while tending to an infant lost sight of Steven for 10 to 15 minutes.

She found the glass sliding door open and Steven’s body floating in the pool.